Please read the scripture before reading the sermon!
Just a Dream
It was just a dream, wasn’t it? … That night in the desert, alone and running for his life, Jacob dreamed of angels and stairways, of sanctuary and safe space, of beautiful warm light, and the fringes of heaven itself. Jacob dreamed of God standing beside him, he dreamed of promises of descendants too numerous to comprehend, of being a blessing to others, and of the steadfast presence of God.
But the next morning Jacob never says anything about a dream, not even about angels or stairways. Instead Jacob speaks of an encounter with God and the promises God has made. Jacob speaks and acts as if the things in the dream actually took place. Could it be that Jacob is unable to differentiate between dreams and reality? Could it be that Jacob was so scared and tired that he had actually become delusional? Didn’t Jacob know that dreams are just the subconscious working out stress and anxiety? Didn’t Jacob know dreams can’t be counted as fact or real life experiences? Didn’t Jacob know dreams are simply things we make up? It was just a dream! Wasn’t it?
Could it be that Jacob had it right? and we overlook divine encounters in our own lives? Could it be that each night as we lay down in bed God is waiting to speak to us?
In this world of multi-tasking, high-tech time saving convenience we are constantly bombarded by noise, lights, text messages, clutter, phone calls, images, emails, and advertisements. In the midst of all that stimulus, I often find it hard to find myself in the mix, let alone God. And the more I thought about it the more I began to think that maybe Jacob had gotten right. Maybe God does encounter us in our dreams. Perhaps it is precisely as we surrender to sleep that we are able to take off our anxieties, lay down our own agendas, and surrender our burdens. It would seem that this is the time in our day that we are the least consumed with ourselves and the most open to something other, the most open to God.
But Jacob wasn’t particularly open to God. It’s not as if he was feeling relaxed and unburdened. That night Jacob was on the run for his life. With the help of his mother Rebekah, he had tricked his father Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau. The already tense relationship between Jacob and Esau had now exploded as Jacob succeeded in acquiring both Esau’s birthright, and now Esau’s blessing too. Esau was so angry he literally wanted to kill Jacob.
But, lucky for Jacob, Rebekah catches wind of Esau’s plan and she sends Jacob to her brother’s house until Esau’s temper subsides. Jacob hurries off and only stops when the sun goes down. Jacob is now in the land in-between. He’s between his home where he’s no longer welcome, and a land where he has never been. He’s completely alone, and alienated from most of his family. Worn-out, he lays down to sleep with only a stone for a pillow.
His thoughts must have been racing. Would Esau come after him? Would he catch up and attack him in the night? How would he find his uncle? How would his uncle receive him? How long would he need to stay away? Would he ever see his family again?
Amid all the thoughts and uncertainties running through his mind, Jacob manages to fall asleep. One would imagine that he would have a difficult time falling asleep. Or that if he did manage to fall asleep it would be one of those restless kinds of sleep, where you toss and turn, where all your fears and insecurities work themselves out in your mind. We’d expect Jacob to have one of those sleeps where he wakes up feeling even more exhausted than when he laid down.
But Jacob’s situation seems to have little effect on his sleep. At least not the type of effect we would expect it to have. Jacob dreams a dream that God is standing beside him, bestowing on Jacob the promises first made to Abraham. Jacob dreams this incredibly powerful image of God standing in our midst, active in our lives, and pouring out abundant unconditional blessings.
It’s a dream most of us wouldn’t have believe. We would have convinced ourselves it was simply an over active imagination. Or at best, it’s a dream most of us would have chalked up to wishful thinking. But Jacob doesn’t do that. When he wakes up, he takes the stone he was using as a pillow and sets it up as a pillar. The pillar is used to symbolize the presence of God in this place and Jacob anoints the pillar as a sign to all those who pass by that this is a holy place. Then he names the place as a reminder of what has happened here. All of this, is Jacob’s very first recorded act of worship.
When Jacob wakes up he treats his dream as reality. Everything Jacob does when he wakes up is based on the dream he had, and the assumption that what happened in his dream has indeed actually happened. But it was just a dream, wasn’t it? Could it be that Jacob actually had it right? Could it be that this dream was really much more than just a dream?
At least for the moment, Jacob did have it right. It wasn’t just a dream. It wasn’t just his subconscious working out his fears and anxieties. It wasn’t just wishful thinking or something he made up. This really was a divine encounter. And contrary to all appearances, Jacob is not alone in this land in-between. The very presence of God is with him.
But this divine appearance to Jacob in his dreams, doesn’t happen because Jacob is particularly open to God’s presence in his life. Jacob is probably more consumed than ever with thoughts of securing his own future, wondering how he’s going to get out of this mess. There’s absolutely no sign that Jacob, the trickster and grabber we know, is making an intentional effort to be more aware of God in his life. Jacob isn’t looking for God, and Jacob certainly doesn’t invite God to be a part of the story. Instead, God just barges into Jacob’s dreams and Jacob’s life completely uninvited.
God barges in, utterly uninvited, and pours out this lavish unconditional promise on someone utterly undeserving. God unilaterally and unconditionally promises that the promises God made to Abraham will be fulfilled through Jacob. God promises that one day the land Jacob’s currently sleeping on as a fugitive will belong to Jacob. God promises to make Jacob into a great nation, with descendants too numerous to count. God promises that Jacob, the swindler and trickster, will actually be a blessing to others. And if that weren’t enough, God promises that God will always be present in Jacob’s life. It’s an incredibly extravagant blessing, especially considering Jacob didn’t even ask for God’s help.
But this isn’t the first time that God has barged into a story uninvited. God, who has interrupted Jacob’s story completely uninvited, did the same thing to Abraham and Isaac. Both Abraham and Isaac are going about their normal lives when God interrupts the story and blesses them with God’s promises. Granted Abraham and Isaac were both more upstanding characters than Jacob, and they seemed to deserve God’s blessing more than Jacob did. But neither of them seemed to be looking for God. Neither of them seemed to be making an intentional effort to be more aware of God’s activity in their midst. Instead, God suddenly and unexpectedly interrupts the story with a word of instruction and a blessing.
This isn’t the last time God will enter into a story uninvited either. We see God’s unexpected activity in the human story over and over again in the biblical account. There are countless times where God interrupts without ever being asked to. There are countless times where God unprovoked steps in with a word of blessing and hope to an undeserving people.
And God acts much the same way in our own lives. God just barges in, without waiting to be invited. As we go about our lives, trying to secure our own futures, God jumps right into the story. We too have all had experiences in life where God barges into our lives completely uninvited. God has been actively at work in all of our lives long before we were aware of God’s presence, and long before we invited God to be a part of our lives. Even if we didn’t recognize it at the time, many of us can at least look back on experiences we have had and see how God was present and actively at work in those situations.
Maybe our divine encounters weren’t as grand as Jacob’s dream. Maybe our divine blessings seem considerably less lavish than the blessing given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But we have all have divine encounters. Maybe it was simply a calming presence that overcame you in the midst of a chaotic situation. Maybe it was a dream you had that resolved a particular question or sticky situation you found yourself in. Maybe it was during an average Sunday, during a particularly boring sermon that you felt God speaking to you. Maybe it was the unusual clarity of mind that made you realize the destructive cycle you were in. God speaks to all of us, and is active in all of our lives in different ways.
Regardless of the ways that God has been at work in your life, or made God’s presence known in your life, God has indeed been at work in your life long before you ever invited God to be part of the story. God enters into our stories and our lives uninvited, because God knows what we need before we do. Long before we ever realize we need forgiveness, God offers us grace. It is this grace of God that helps us realize we need God’s grace and forgivness. Long before we ever know we are lovable, God loves us. It is this love of God that helps us learn how to be loved. Long before we ever realize we were made to be in relationship with God, God adopts us into the family. And it is the family of God that helps us uncover our identity as Children of God.
God knows what we need long before we do. And God loves us enough, not to wait to be invited into the story. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t invite God to be a part of our lives or that we shouldn’t try to be more aware of God’s activity in our midst. We could all be better about that. And there are certainly times when we can actively try to dim the clutter and noise in our lives so we can focus more on God. There are certainly moments where we can and should ask God to enter into our lives and be present in our midst. But what I am saying is that God doesn’t wait for us to come to our senses and recognize our need for God. God enters into our lives long before we are ever aware that God is there. God enters into our lives long before we ever recognize that we need God.
God doesn’t wait for an invitation. God just butts right into our lives, actively working to bring about good in our lives. And it is because God is active and involved in our lives that we are able to worship God. Like Jacob, our worship of God, even our awareness of God, stems from God’s activity in our midst long before we ever recognize it as God. As we come to realize, even in retrospect, that God has been present in our lives, worship is a natural response. When we like Jacob realize that the Lord is in this place, that God has been active in our lives, we look for ways of marking those occasions. We find ways to remind ourselves and others of what God has done for us.
Through these acts of worship we can invite God to be an even more active part of the story. Through worship we can actively engage a relationship with God. Through these acts of worship we can become even more aware of the presence of God in our lives. But we should remember that worship is our response to what God has already done. Worship is our response to God who loves us enough not to wait for an invitation.
Surely the Lord is in this place! Thanks be to God that God doesn’t wait for an invitation!
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